Rise in Revolution (Chapter Sixty-Six)
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Chapter Sixty-Six
Unbroken
Outside the fourth ring, Mainframe. April 24, 2272. Time instance 842N.
Dawn. The day of the final invasion.
Emma gripped Nightbane tightly, not yet activating it but needing the comfort it offered as the revolution poured out of the visper tunnels and onto the sand. In the distance, the Mainframe loomed, four consecutive rings, each taller than the last. They’d have to make their way through the first three rings to reach the Mainframe itself, where they could shut down the supercomputer and end this tyranny once and for all.
Emma shivered as they approached, the cyborgs in front. Cataclysm was a reassuring presence beside her, silent and focused as they walked. They’d be facing dozens of nine thousand units as well as thousands of turrets, Seven had said, but she didn’t see any turrets now.
On her other side, a rebel babbled nervously, drumming his fingers against his arms with his shotgun against his back. Since Cataclysm was being so quiet and Emma felt the need to talk to get over her nerves, she struck up a conversation with him, if only to get him to stop muttering.
He introduced himself as Martin, from somewhere in sector ASQ. Emma had never seen him before in her life, but he seemed friendly enough and had become friends with Sub over the past few days but he was having difficulty finding her. She talked nervously with him for awhile until Cataclysm nudged her, pointing at the wall ahead.
“Did that have spikes before?”
Before Emma could answer, the ‘spikes’ swiveled to face them and released a hail of bullets at the cyborgs in front. Emma stopped walking immediately, watching as some Steelwings took to the air to get a better vantage point and started shooting. A shape she assumed was M swept forward towards the turrets, as did several other magical figures.
She put on the necklace and ran her fingers over Nightbane’s surface once more. Cataclysm turned to her, taking a deep breath. “I guess I’m up. Wish me luck.” She hated to be separated from him, but he would do the most good in the front lines, taking down turrets and pushing his way towards the first ring with the others.
Emma had no plans to sit idly by, however. She kissed Cataclysm and watched him fly off before forcing herself to turn away, racing through the crowd towards Jimmy and Gali.
“Jimmy! Gali! I need you guys to help me with something once we’re into the fourth ring.”
They turned to her, curious. “Us? Why?” Jimmy asked, tilting her head.
“Because you, like me, are completely worthless in a big fight! But we have our own target, right? We’re going after the things that keep the visper out. We can’t win without them, and-”
“-and you need a map,” Fall finished. “I’m a terrible cyborg. Can I come with you?”
“Oh, me too!” Mars raised a flaming hand.
Emma looked around at them, memorizing their faces, and nodded, tightening her grip on Nightbane and bringing the blade to life.
“Okay. As soon as that wall goes down, we’re doing this.”
They slowly approached, watching the turrets spark and shatter as they were shot and the cyborgs falling from the air as they succumbed to the bullets.
The moment a sufficient number of turrets were cleared, bolts of blue energy shot towards the wall of the fourth ring, blasting a hole through most of the wall.
The revolution roared and surged forward. Emma raised Nightbane, her voice one with them. Jimmy and Gali beside her grabbed each other’s hands, right in left, as they raised their blades to frame the rising sun.
A bear charged past her, eyes black and skin green-tinged, fur limp but roaring forward. Shawn clung to its back, shotgun in hand, eyes ablaze with red light and his small group of zombies running along with him.
Emma had no idea where he’d gotten a bear. She decided not to question it and moved forward, staying close to her newfound group as the revolution poured into the fourth ring of the Mainframe.
The inside was a circular building, mostly a hallway with rooms and important whatever-the-fucks going off of it. Emma didn’t really pay much attention as they came in, smooth gray tiles betraying the evil within.
“Lead the way!” Emma roared to Fall, motioning for her to go ahead. Fall took the lead, dodging around a fight between a few two thousands and the other rebels. Emma raced along behind her, Mars keeping pace while Jimmy and Gali took up the rear. Fall dispatched a one thousand unit- who seemed to be fleeing- with a bullet before kicking down a door and entering a room.
A turret immediately came to life but she shot it, disabling it immediately, and crossed the room to the machine on the other side. It had a bunch of lights and an emitter of some kind, along with a fuckton of inactive buttons.
“How are we supposed to shut this off?” Mars mumbled, looking it over. “I don’t-”
Emma sliced it in half. The lights went out.
“That works,” Gali mumbled, her statement overrun by Jimmy’s shout that they had cyborgs behind them.
Emma reacted first, charging at the two thousand unit. A bullet slammed into her shoulder but hit the protection provided by Geek’s necklace, making the two thousand unit blink in confusion before Nightbane sliced it clean in two.
Emma felt sick at how easily Nightbane parted the flesh of the cyborgs, spilling blood and parts of humans that she hadn’t ever hoped to see, but she took out the second cyborg as well and stepped carefully over the remains. “One down.”
They moved down the hallway, noting how it was mostly one thousand units that fled on sight. Gali shot one in the back of the head with a pistol she had obtained at some point, shuddering as she did so. Jimmy hugged her briefly, charging in to help Mars deal with another two thousand. Emma watched her friends as they fought, taking out the anti-visper emitters as they went, noting how they’d changed since the Black Market, something that felt like it had been years ago.
Mars held more ferocity in every action, cutting her usual humor and smiles for determined blasts of fury and flame, more aggressive and charging in faster than she ever had before. Gali was more timid, staying back and shooting with her pistol instead of getting into melee. Fall was the same, as always, and Emma herself was more aggressive, confident with her protection and with Nightbane.
But Jimmy…
Jimmy seemed unchanged, other than staying closer to Gali and glancing at her occasionally, but even in the beginning she was like this. Jimmy seemed to be the least emotionally affected by the revolution, except for the cyborgs and aven, as if this was day-to-day life, a fight to survive.
Something Tanadin had said to her came back to her, now, watching Jimmy drive her sword through a one thousand unit. Doravians are tough. They have to be, to survive down there. The aven evolved to live there, but the humans had to adapt. They’re a breed apart, and it amazes me what anyone who’s spent time in Doravia can do.
Jimmy might not have ever actually been to Doravia, but her parents, her blood, had, and she showed it with the steely bite in every swing, every step, every protective move and every time she avoided death.
It was honestly amazing. Despite everything that had happened, despite how much Jimmy shouldn’t be as confident and okay as she was, she was unbroken.
Emma was surprised when they didn’t encounter a nine thousand unit, but she figured that they were fighting the main brunt of their forces. She knew they were here. Nine and Seven had insisted that there were about a hundred stationed here, in the Mainframe itself.
She shivered. One nine thousand unit was almost too much for them. A hundred…
They needed the visper. An explosion in the distance made her flinch, wondering who she knew was dead.
They needed the visper now.
Emma stopped running, making the rest of her ragtag group pause. “You guys keep going! Take out every one of these things in the fourth ring! I’m going back to the tunnels. We need the visper.”
“Good luck.” Jimmy smiled at her. “Run quickly.”
“I will.” Emma looked them over, fearing this would be the last time she’d see any of them, before turning and running back the way they had came.
~~~
Martin was pretty sure that they’d made a mistake, splitting off from one of the bigger groups.
He followed Sub through the third ring, twelve others following around them with weapons ready. There were three two thousand units but other than that they were all weak spellcasters or nonmagical humans, with only one aven who didn’t look too sure of himself and kept re-adjusting the grip on his weapon.
“Are you sure it was a good idea to split off?”
“We’ll be fine,” Sub assured, watching a one thousand take off down the hallway at the sight of them. “Tyra, what’s the probability of running into a nine thousand unit?”
“All things considered, fairly low,” one of the two thousands answered. “We might run into one, so we should keep our eyes and ears open, but they will be heading towards the areas with the greatest resistance. We are a low-priority target.”
“See?” Sub grinned. “And these guys are no problem.” She motioned to two one thousand units backed up into a corner and another scurrying into a room.
“Why aren’t they attacking?” the aven, Rakon, asked.
“They’re not programmed to,” Tyra answered. “The nine thousands are here to protect the Mainframe. The one thousands are only the repair crew. The only reason we’re seeing units of any other type is because the Mainframe has withdrawn some from the sectors to protect itself.”
As she finished speaking, a seven thousand unit came around the corner and shot one of the humans in the head. All three two thousands fired at her and she ducked around the corner again. They pursued her and, when they returned, their number was reduced by one.
“Nytha didn’t make it,” Tyra explained. “But we’re unlikely to run into more seven thousand units. We, after all, have the majority of them.”
Sub nodded, sobered, and led the way down the hall.
“I don’t know if we can take out a door,” Martin muttered. “It took seven thousand units to take out the defenses on a door earlier.”
“Well,” Sub said slowly, “who says we have to go through a door?”
“Are you suggesting we blow up the wall?”
“That’s exactly what I’m suggesting. Tyra, do you have one of those wall-explody-thingies?”
“Garen does.”
“Garen?”
The two thousand unit nodded and retrieved the weapon, motioning for everyone to stand back before he fired and blew a hole in the wall, hitting a few of them with debris but causing no minor damage.
“How’d you get your hands on that?” Martin demanded. “I thought only seven thousands-”
“Nicked it.” Garen put it away. “Figured I might need it.”
“Fair.” They stepped up to the hole in the wall and quickly scampered back into cover as dozens of turrets came to life. Between each of the rings was about twenty feet of open space, which was entirely guarded with turrets on the walls of both rings. Only a few groups had made it from the fourth to the third ring so far, and Martin was pretty sure that no one had gotten to the second ring yet. Each of the buildings was smaller than the one encircling it, so he was fairly confident they’d know if anyone was in the second ring.
“So, what are we going to do about them?” Rakon asked, clicking his talons nervously. “I don’t-”
“Incoming!” Tyra roared, whipping around to face the dozens of one thousand units that had suddenly poured of their hiding places to attack. “Dammit! They’re defending the second ring!”
“Take them down!” Garen barked, charging into melee. The rest of the group went into combat but they were pinned, stuck between dozens of one thousand units and the turrets. Martin fought desperately as the group fell around him, feeling his heart drop when Tyra and Garen were both overwhelmed.
In an act of desperation and terror, Rakon bolted through the hole in the wall, spreading his wings and attempting to fly away. Every nearby turret started shooting, killing him almost instantly and reducing him to a heap of blood and feathers, shattered beak and broken bones disfiguring his shape.
Martin felt sick but had to duck under a melee swing from a one thousand unit, pulling his attention to the battle. He drove his sword through its chest and kicked it away, turning his head to see another one point a gun at him.
Sub leaped in front of him, raising a magical shield with her powers, bands of energy stopping the bullet. She turned and grinned at him, a spark of humor and confidence in her eyes.
Then, suddenly, her expression changed at the sound of a gunshot, surprise and fear painted across her face as her eyes widened and her magic faded, her body slumping to the ground as the bullet impacted the back of her head.
“Sub! SUB!” Martin looked around desperately, trying to find an escape, a salvation, something, but seeing only corpses and hit with the sinking realization that he was the last one alive. He heard the sound of a gun firing, turning to-
~~~
Tanadin looked around the hallway as they walked through it, searching for a doorway into the second ring. Most of the doors into other rooms were shut, but one was open, revealing stasis tubes containing dozens of humans, floating in odd liquid.
Tanadin shivered. “What is this place?”
“This is the third ring, where most of the cyborg production takes place,” Nine explained. “Those would be people awaiting augmentation. I’m surprised the security here isn’t higher, honestly, but most of it’s condensed in the first and second rings.”
“Fun,” Kyir grumbled. “I can’t wait to fight six nine thousand units at once.”
“We’ll be okay. Worst comes to worst, you and I bolt and leave everyone to die.” Jase smiled sweetly and elbowed Kyir.
“Good plan.”
“Great,” Nine muttered. “The only survivors of the revolution will be Xela and a couple of assholes.”
“That’s how it works,” Jase said cheerfully. “How do we watch out for nine thousand units?”
“Listen for their footsteps. It’ll be the fastest way.”
“I’m not hearing anyone’s footsteps except his,” Kyir mumbled, jerking a thumb at the three thousand unit behind them.
“Sorry.”
“No, no. It’s fine. I like your footsteps. Your footsteps make me feel safer.” Tanadin smiled at him weakly. “I like having the minigun on my side.”
“There’s a door.” Nine pointed and then stopped, the small crowd of seven thousand units behind him following suit. “Wait. I just remembered something. The doors to the first and second rings are mined.”
“They’re what.”
“They’ll explode if we go through them.”
“You’re only remembering this now?” Kyir demanded.
“Yes.” Nine backtracked to an open section of wall. “So we’ll make our own door.” He reached for a weapon but grasped at the air, frowning and moving his trenchcoat out of the way to see. “Seven, you piece of shit.”
“What? What did he do?”
“He stole my weapon. I told him to get his own but no he had to take mine.”
“Here, sir.” One of the seven thousand units handed him a weapon. “Use mine.”
“Thank you. Everyone stand back.”
Tanadin scrambled back as Nine shot at the wall, the sphere of green energy blowing up a decent sized section for them to step through. He held up a hand and poked his head through, frowning at what he saw.
“There’s another hole just down the way. Looks like someone rushed into the turrets and got annihilated.” He shivered. “They’re...really destroyed.”
“Should we investigate?” Jase asked, peeking out of the hole.
“I think so, yeah.” Tanadin let Nine lead the way and followed behind. They passed several dead two thousands and a human with a bullet in his skull but kept walking.
And then they came around the bend.
If Tanadin had been in her human form, she likely would have felt sick at the sheer amount of blood and bodies, evidence of both blades and bullets cutting through the flesh of some poor rebels. A couple of two thousand units were dead, along with almost a dozen Mainframe one thousands. Normal humans were scattered about, all dead, but one in particular caught Tanadin’s eye.
“Sub!” She bounded over the corpses, almost slipping as she landed on slick tiles. She knelt down by Sub’s side and held her body carefully, shivering at the blood that soaked her clothes and hat, an expression of terror and surprise caught on her face.
Tanadin carefully picked Sub’s hat up out of the blood and set it on her chest, gently laying her back down. Kyir helped her to the feet and hugged her briefly, mumbling, “I’m sorry.”
“She was my friend. And...and now…”
“And now she’s gone,” Kyir finished. “It hurts, I know. But we’ll take out the Mainframe. Today. No one else will have to die like she did.”
Nine shook his head sadly. “It looks like the one thousands came up behind them when they blasted through the wall. They couldn’t take them.”
“Damned shame. Look how young most of them were.” Jase rubbed her arms.
“Let’s keep moving,” Kyir mumbled. “We have a lot of turrets between us and the second ring.”
~~~
Outside of the fourth ring, the sands shifted and buzzed. No one was there to witness it, but they would soon know as the first of the visper emerged from the sands.
Soon, within the fourth ring, the rebels could hear a dull buzzing sound. Those near the exit peered out into the sky, seeing it dark with the wings of hundreds of visper and the sand swarming with hundreds more. Ahead of the first walking visper was Emma, eyes narrowed in determination and hand gripping Nightbane tightly. The sun outlined the visper in gold and orange, making their shapes appear darker as they approached.
The word went out the the revolutionaries cheered, surprise and joy humming in their hearts.
For none had expected these reinforcements, saying they couldn't spare the cyborgs to take out the emitters, yet they hadn’t needed to.
Emma raised Nightbane and roared, the sound echoed by hundreds of visper, for she was the harbinger of their salvation.
